Project acronym RE-FASHIONING
Project Re-fashioning the Renaissance: Popular Groups, Fashion and the Material and Cultural Significance of Clothing in Europe, 1550-1650
Researcher (PI) Paula Sofia Hohti
Host Institution (HI) AALTO KORKEAKOULUSAATIO SR
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH5, ERC-2016-COG
Summary This study of Renaissance dress offers a better understanding of how fashion developed at popular levels of
society in Europe, 1550-1650. Drawing on documentary, visual and material evidence, it investigates
fundamental questions relating to the transformation of fashion that will shed light on popular taste,
dissemination, transformation and adaption of fashion, on imitation and meaning, and on changing cultural
attitudes to dress among popular groups. The central goal of the project is to develop a new methodology that
combines my previous experience of empirical research and theoretical models with the tradition of textile
analysis and costume conservation. This involves experimenting with a range of techniques, including
technical analysis of textiles, dye- and fibre analysis, and the reconstruction and visualization of historical
fashions using both 16th-century recipes as well as modern digital tools such as 3D printing and digital
reconstruction. This framework of dress and textile history at both scientific and experimental levels helps me
to provide a more comprehensive interpretation of the value, variations, and material experiences that were
associated with dress and dressing in the Renaissance, and to develop methodologies that allow us to explore
new ways in which narratives from historical documents, books, images, and material objects can be created.
The new historical knowledge and methodologies built during the ERC will lead to the ultimate theoretical
objective of the project –to rethink the scientific foundation and theory of dress studies within the ‘new
materialist’ framework. By creating a material-based approach and methodologies to the study of fashion in the
context of popular groups, my research will not only build new horizons for the study of popular dress and its
material and cultural significance in the Renaissance, but it will also create a theoretical model that challenges
dress historians to go beyond semiotic analysis of dress.
Summary
This study of Renaissance dress offers a better understanding of how fashion developed at popular levels of
society in Europe, 1550-1650. Drawing on documentary, visual and material evidence, it investigates
fundamental questions relating to the transformation of fashion that will shed light on popular taste,
dissemination, transformation and adaption of fashion, on imitation and meaning, and on changing cultural
attitudes to dress among popular groups. The central goal of the project is to develop a new methodology that
combines my previous experience of empirical research and theoretical models with the tradition of textile
analysis and costume conservation. This involves experimenting with a range of techniques, including
technical analysis of textiles, dye- and fibre analysis, and the reconstruction and visualization of historical
fashions using both 16th-century recipes as well as modern digital tools such as 3D printing and digital
reconstruction. This framework of dress and textile history at both scientific and experimental levels helps me
to provide a more comprehensive interpretation of the value, variations, and material experiences that were
associated with dress and dressing in the Renaissance, and to develop methodologies that allow us to explore
new ways in which narratives from historical documents, books, images, and material objects can be created.
The new historical knowledge and methodologies built during the ERC will lead to the ultimate theoretical
objective of the project –to rethink the scientific foundation and theory of dress studies within the ‘new
materialist’ framework. By creating a material-based approach and methodologies to the study of fashion in the
context of popular groups, my research will not only build new horizons for the study of popular dress and its
material and cultural significance in the Renaissance, but it will also create a theoretical model that challenges
dress historians to go beyond semiotic analysis of dress.
Max ERC Funding
1 999 854 €
Duration
Start date: 2017-04-01, End date: 2022-03-31
Project acronym TRANSGANG
Project Transnational Gangs as Agents of Mediation: Experiences of Conflict Resolution in Street Youth Organizations in Southern Europe, North Africa and the Americas
Researcher (PI) Carles FEIXA PAMPOLS
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSIDAD POMPEU FABRA
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH3, ERC-2016-ADG
Summary TRANSGANG aims to develop a renewed model for the analysis of transnational youth gangs in the global age, in dialogue with two classics of urban ethnography, published nearly a century ago: The Gang, by F.M. Thrasher (1926) and The Polish Peasant in Europe and America, by W. I. Thomas and F. Znaniecki (1918-1920). To do this, the project will start by a systematic review of the historical literature on youth gangs, which will try to overcome the north-american-centrism, dominant in contemporary criminology. The central phase of the research will focus on a multisited and multilevel ethnography that will explore experiences in which gangs have acted as agents of mediation, as well as the barriers that have blocked these attempts. The project will compare street youth organizations from two transnational communities -Latinos and Arabs-, both in their homelands and in their new European neigbourhoods. Starting with three case studies of “good practices” in Barcelona, Medellin and Casablanca, which will be studied in depth, contrasts with other cases in which other policies have been implemented will be established: Madrid, Marseille and Milan in southern Europe; Oran Tunis and Cairo in north Africa; Chicago, Santiago de Cuba and San Salvador in the Americas. Using an experimental approach based on the “extended case method”, it will have as its theme the making of a film that collects the experience of members or former members of gangs who have participated in mediation experiences. The ultimate goal is to develop a renewed transnational, inter-generational, intergeneric and transmedia approach to Twenty-First-century gangs, very different from the local, coeval, male and face-to-face model used for understanding gangs in the Twentieth century. Although the focus of the project is theoretical, its purpose is applied: to deduce more effective ways of intervention to prevent the hegemony of the criminal gang model that appears as dominant in the neoliberal era.
Summary
TRANSGANG aims to develop a renewed model for the analysis of transnational youth gangs in the global age, in dialogue with two classics of urban ethnography, published nearly a century ago: The Gang, by F.M. Thrasher (1926) and The Polish Peasant in Europe and America, by W. I. Thomas and F. Znaniecki (1918-1920). To do this, the project will start by a systematic review of the historical literature on youth gangs, which will try to overcome the north-american-centrism, dominant in contemporary criminology. The central phase of the research will focus on a multisited and multilevel ethnography that will explore experiences in which gangs have acted as agents of mediation, as well as the barriers that have blocked these attempts. The project will compare street youth organizations from two transnational communities -Latinos and Arabs-, both in their homelands and in their new European neigbourhoods. Starting with three case studies of “good practices” in Barcelona, Medellin and Casablanca, which will be studied in depth, contrasts with other cases in which other policies have been implemented will be established: Madrid, Marseille and Milan in southern Europe; Oran Tunis and Cairo in north Africa; Chicago, Santiago de Cuba and San Salvador in the Americas. Using an experimental approach based on the “extended case method”, it will have as its theme the making of a film that collects the experience of members or former members of gangs who have participated in mediation experiences. The ultimate goal is to develop a renewed transnational, inter-generational, intergeneric and transmedia approach to Twenty-First-century gangs, very different from the local, coeval, male and face-to-face model used for understanding gangs in the Twentieth century. Although the focus of the project is theoretical, its purpose is applied: to deduce more effective ways of intervention to prevent the hegemony of the criminal gang model that appears as dominant in the neoliberal era.
Max ERC Funding
2 343 249 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-01-01, End date: 2022-12-31
